SynthesisThe Journal of nutrition2021
Patterns of Growth in Childhood in Relation to Adult Schooling Attainment and Intelligence Quotient in 6 Birth Cohorts in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from the Consortium of Health-Oriented Research in Transitioning Societies (COHORTS).
Synthesis in The Journal of nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Linear growth beyond 24 months and child neurodevelopment in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- The Impact of Early-Life Growth on Long-Term Cardiometabolic and Neurocognitive Outcomes in High-Income Countries: A Neglected Public Health Problem.Nutrition reviews · 2026Review
- The double-burden of poverty on cognition hypothesis: a systematic review of the mechanisms of the effect of poverty in early life on the development and expression of cognition in adolescence and adulthood.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Review
- An overview of modern machine learning methods for effect measure modification analyses in high-dimensional settings.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- Latent classes of anthropometric growth in early childhood using uni- and multivariate approaches in a South African birth cohort.PloS one · 2025Article
- Observational
- Impact of Early Ying Yang Bao Nutritional Support on Growth and Neurodevelopment in Preschool Children in China.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Women's health and well-being in five birth cohorts from low- and middle-income countries: Domains and their associations with early-life conditions.Journal of global health · 2024Article
- Growth Velocities Across Distinct Early Life Windows and Child Cognition: Insights from a Contemporary US Cohort.The Journal of pediatrics · 2023Article
- Growth in Infancy and Childhood and Age at Menarche in Five Low- or Middle-Income Countries: Consortium of Health Orientated Research in Transitional Societies (COHORTS).The Journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Complementary and alternative metrics for tracking population-level trends in child linear growth.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Short stature and language development in the United Kingdom: a longitudinal analysis of children from the Millennium Cohort Study.BMC medicine · 2022Article
- Conditional wealth to estimate association of wealth mobility with health and human capital in low- and middle-income country cohorts.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- Health and development from preconception to 20 years of age and human capital.Lancet (London, England) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 9 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGrowth faltering has been associated with poor intellectual performance. The relative strengths of associations between growth in early and in later childhood remain underexplored.
objectivesWe examined the association between growth in childhood and adult human capital in 5 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
methodsWe analyzed data from 9503 participants in 6 prospective birth cohorts from 5 LMICs (Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines, and South Africa). We used linear and quasi-Poisson regression models to assess the associations between measures of height and relative weight at 4 age intervals [birth, age ∼2 y, midchildhood (MC), adulthood] and 2 dimensions of adult human capital [schooling attainment and Intelligence Quotient (IQ)].
resultsMeta-analysis of site- and sex-specific estimates showed statistically significant associations between size at birth and height at ∼2 y and the 2 outcomes (P < 0.001). Weight and length at birth and linear growth from birth to ∼2 y of age (1 z-score difference) were positively associated with schooling attainment (β: 0.13; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.19, β: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.07, 0.32, and β: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.10, 0.40, respectively) and adult IQ (β: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.35, 1.14, β: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.35, 1.10, and β: 1.52, 95% CI: 0.96, 2.08, respectively). Linear growth from age 2 y to MC and from MC to adulthood was not associated with higher school attainment or IQ. Change in relative weight in early childhood, MC, and adulthood was not associated with either outcome.
conclusionsLinear growth in the first 1000 d is a predictor of schooling attainment and IQ in adulthood in LMICs. Linear growth in later periods was not associated with either of these outcomes. Changes in relative weight across the life course were not associated with schooling and IQ in adulthood.
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